Estonian formin: EU must strengthen strategic communication

"In today's world we should not underestimate the importance of strategic communication, and I am glad that we are finally discussing the topic on the ministerial level as well," Mikser was quoted by spokespeople as saying.He added that strategic communication serves the EU's broader goals and is both an opportunity and a challenge. "On one hand, we have to deal with exposing misinformation and fake news as well as media education, but on the other hand, the EU itself has to have a higher profile. We have to tell our own positive story, and make sure that narrative reaches people both inside the EU and in our neighborhood," he stressed.The EU's strategic communication task forces serve in the direction of the East, the South and the Western Balkans areas. "Estonia was among the first to raise the issue of strategic communication at the EU table. We are very pleased with the work of East Stratcom Task Force, where we contribute with a national expert, but certainly all of the task forces are in equal need of strengthening," Mikser said. "The European Union must find ways for providing permanent funding for the task forces' operations," he added.Mikser expressed a desire to include a regular strategic communication topic at the FAC. "I hope we will come back to this topic as early as the first half of 2018," he said.The need for strategic communication efforts in the EU was first raised in 2015 by the Estonian, Danish, Latvian and British foreign ministers. The guidelines issued on the basis of the European Council conclusions of March 2015 provided a mandate for establishing the European External Action Service's East Stratcom Task Force. Estonia's representative in the East Stratcom is expert Anneli Kimber. In 2017, the EEAS decided to set up two new directions – EEAS Stratcom Western-Balkans Task Force and EEAS Stratcom South.Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8852, sise@bns.eeBaltic News Service